Sid ended up losing Civilization at one point, I think he wasn't involved in Civ3, anyway, it sounds like he's back for number 4 hurrah! Surprised to see them mention consoles though, scrolling a map, picking and moving units with a joystick is never good.

"Representatives from Take-Two have announced that the company has purchased 'certain rights' to the Civilization franchise, and signed a long term deal with developer Firaxis.

Titles in the Civilization series were last published by Atari, who had previously bought original publisher Microprose, but although it was reported that the company had sold those rights for up to $22.3 million, it was not known who had acquired them until now. Take-Two will be allowing development duties on the new sequel to continue at Firaxis, the company headed by the series’ creator Sid Meier.

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV will be published for PC in late 2005 by Take-Two’s newly announced publishing label 2K Games, with console versions to follow."

The only Civ that ever felt right was Civ 1. None of the ones I've played since have managed a balance that felt fun. The worst failing of all management games like that is making it feel like tedium, a job and not fun. The problem with a lot of developers is that they get all these ideas for things to put in the game but don't remove the features that add complexity but not fun. Worst example of that Master of Orion 2 vs. Master of Orion 1. The first game's planet management screen was fine, just a couple of sliders to set production goals. The sequel created an entire new layer of complexity to replace the earlier simplicity, complete with multiple planets per star, custom buildings on those planets, and so forth. Let alone the additional expense of creating all that drek, it didn't add anything to the game but tedium!

What I liked about Civ 1 is that it covered such a grandiose and impossible idea and made it work on an almost chess-like abstraction.